Deadly twin suicide attacks at Afghan tribal meeting

Two suicide bombers struck a meeting of community leaders in a southern Afghan town near the border with Pakistan, killing at least four people and wounding 15, police said.

One gunman on foot opened fire on guards at the entrance of the council building in Spin Boldak, forced his way inside and detonated himself, while a second attacker rammed an explosives-laden vehicle into the outside walls.

"Four people were killed and 15 wounded in the attack," Gorzang Afridi, spokesman for the police chief of Kandahar province, told AFP.

The building partially collapsed, with some of the injured still being rescued from the rubble and a search operation underway to check for any buried bodies, officials said.

Most of the dead and injured were local residents who had gone to the weekly meeting to lodge complaints with tribal elders or to petition them for assistance.

"The figure could rise as more bodies are being searched for," Mr Afridi said.

Witnesses said two explosions were heard followed by small arms fire in Spin Boldak, a volatile town 100 kilometres south of Kandahar city.

"Every Sunday the local shura (council) meets at the administrative building, that is where the attack happened," said Mohammad Ali, the border police chief.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, but Taliban militants often say that they planned suicide bombings after the blasts.

The Taliban have waged a bloody insurgency against foreign and Afghan forces since being ousted from power in a 2001 invasion led by the United States.

Many militant leaders are based in safe havens across the porous border with Pakistan.

The last major suicide attack in Afghanistan occurred on December 26 at a US military base near the eastern city of Khost, killing at least three Afghans and wounding seven others.

It came two days after an Afghan policewoman shot dead a US NATO adviser inside Kabul police headquarters, the latest "insider" attack by a member of Afghanistan's security forces on their foreign allies.

NATO is handing over security duties to Afghan forces as it prepares to withdraw the bulk of its 100,000 troops by 2014, but there are fears the country will descend into civil war when foreign soldiers leave.